Colombia 2, Ivory Coast 1 >> Colombia moved to the verge of qualifying for the World Cup’s knockout stage after scoring twice in a devastating six-minute spell in the second half.

The South Americans went ahead on James Rodriguez’s header from a corner kick in the 64th minute before substitute Juan Quintero added a second on a break following a defensive error.

Colombia held onto its lead, despite a brilliant 73rd-minute goal by Gervinho, for a second consecutive win in Group C. Colombia almost is assured of reaching the second round for the time in the country’s history. Since 1998, every team that has earned six points in the group stage has advanced.

TV host resigns >> A Dutch television host and actress has quit as an ambassador for her country’s national committee of the United Nations children’s fund, UNICEF, after tweeting a photo that had been manipulated to appear to show two Colombian footballers snorting white lines off the pitch.

Nicolette van Dam had earlier apologized and removed the offending tweet after media in Colombia reacted angrily to the fake photo, which clearly was intended to link Colombia with cocaine use.

“Queridos Colombianos, there was no offense intended from my side,” she tweeted. “Please accept my honest and sincere apologies. (hash)RespectColombia.”

UNICEF condemned the post in a statement out of New York and called it “inappropriate and highly offensive.”

The Dutch national committee of UNICEF said on its website Van Dam quit “out of respect for our work” and the reactions to her insensitive tweet Wednesday had made her position as ambassador “untenable.”

sweet dreams >> Kyle Beckerman lived in Colorado 12 years ago when the U.S. held on to beat Portugal 3-2 in a group stage match at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea. He remembers watching the game ... sort of.

Beckerman fell asleep briefly, then awoke to see the halftime score with the Americans leading 3-0. The game was played in the middle of the night Colorado time.

The 32-year-old American midfielder now is preparing to face Portugal in a Group G match Sunday in Manaus.

“I think I kind of dozed off because it was two or three in the morning,” Beckerman recalled Thursday. “And I woke up and looked at the score and thought it was a typo, because it said 3-0 USA. When I realized it wasn’t a typo, I jumped up and was going crazy for the team. It was all about holding on for the win, which they did.”

There, sitting in one of the seats, was none other than the coach of Brazil’s national team, Felipe Scolari. Or so he thought.

The man actually was Vladimir Palomo, a Scolari lookalike who did not reveal his real identity when he gave Conti an interview in which he said he was surprised by Spain’s early elimination from the World Cup, praised Neymar and said Italy, the Netherlands and Germany were Brazil’s biggest rivals.

The interview was published by the websites of the influential Folha de S.Paulo and O Globo newspapers, which hours later took down the story when it was revealed Scolari was not on the plane and he had spent the day in the northeastern city of Fortaleza.

Honduras changes >> Honduras coach Luis Fernando Suarez is set to make changes when his team faces Ecuador today in a Group E match that could end either side’s hopes of reaching the knockout stages of the World Cup.

Jorge Claros will replace the suspended Wilson Palacios and Suarez said there would be more changes but they would only be announced before the start of the match at Curitiba’s Arena da Baixada.

Suarez said his team “ran away from football” during its 3-0 defeat to France in its opening fixture.

The protest was called by the Free Fare movement, the group that was behind the first protests last year that sparked roiling anti-government demonstrations across Brazil.

The group has one specific aim, to make public transport free, but its demonstrations often gather protesters with a myriad of complaints, many targeting the cost of the World Cup or government corruption.